I loved Caraval and now I’m adding this to the list! Absolutely magical and spellbounding! I loved the voice and world building!

This book was one of the roughest reads for 2020 for me. The first half of the book felt slow but when it started speeding up things weren't too bad. I felt like on paper, theoretically I should have really enjoyed this book. It was romantic in the tingly way that I love most but it just was so incredibly long and drawn out. I have to say though that Kallia is SO COOL. She's strong, and witty, and obstinate, and tough and gritty, I just really really enjoyed her. She made the book worth the read.

I feel like there was a chunk missing somewhere--as in, I didn't really understand the conflict? Things were happening, but no one seemed very upset by them, and I'm not certain the overall story. Beautiful setting, but limited world building and a plot that doesn't have much to do.

YA fantasy isn't really my thing, but the premise of this book sounded interesting enough that I agreed to review the novel. Since I received an e-ARC, I didn't realize until about 1/4 of the way through how LONG this book is. In paper form, it's 464 pages! In my opinion, at least 100 of them could have been chopped, if not 200. That being said, the story was engaging enough that I finished. I'm not sure there was any point, though, that I couldn't have put the novel down. It's not that the plot doesn't have any action, it's just that it gets redundant and somehow wasn't tense or suspenseful enough to keep me riveted to the page, at least not for 464 pages. In addition, the finale leaves a lot to be desired. The story ends on a cliffhanger, of course, but without satisfactorily wrapping up much at all, which makes the ending feel unsatisfying, especially after wading through so many pages to get there. Its disappointing end decided me on the sequel—no thanks. WHERE DREAMS DESCEND leaves plenty of questions that need to be answered, but I just don't have the patience to plow through another thick tome to get them.

In addition, the characters are pretty ho-hum, with none being super original. Kallia provides a strong female lead, but while her confidence and determination make her admirable, her vanity and coldness make her difficult to like. For leading men, neither Jack nor Demarco has much personality or freshness. The women of the Conquering Circus are the most interesting characters in the book by far, but they are not fleshed out nearly enough. Same goes for Glorian - for a city full of secrets, it's not nearly as mysterious as it should be. A shame because it is the most intriguing part of WHERE DREAMS DESCEND for me.

All things considered, then, WHERE DREAMS DESCEND was just an average read for me.

This one was a DNF for me. I couldn't get into the world or writing. I also was not a huge fan of the Night Circus, and this felt like a combination of that and Caraval. I think fans of Night Circus will like this though.

Where Dreams Descend was a better book. The first book in a duology, it follows a young magician—Kallia—who escapes from a more powerful and dangerous magician that runs a club in the woods. She makes it to the nearest city and enters a competition with the intent to prove that women can be just as good as magicians as men. Ultimately, the narrative was mostly centered around romance—around Kallia and a infamous retired magician named Demarco, around Kallia and the man she ran from, Jack. The competition, the mystery behind it all, the magic, it faded to the back in favor of the romance getting more time and focus. Had the book not been so distinctly about challenging the patriarchy it might have seemed less egregious but as it is, there’s a subplot about challenging misogyny that is decentered in order to present a romance.

I didn't enjoy these characters and could not get immersed into this world. Looking at the summary of book #2, I had guessed the future couple pairing.

Unfortunately it's DNF at about 30%. Thanks to NetGalley for the e-book.

The Phantom of the Opera meets Moulin Rouge was spot on. There's a bit of a love triangle but I was okay with it. The atmosphere was killer and this book was a such a quick, fun ride. Really interested to read the sequel now!

Such high hopes for a dark, magical, mysterious book. Unfortunately, it did not deliver for me.

The pacing was extremely slow, so many characters to keep track of, a horrible, controlling romantic relationship is the premise of the first part of the story and then a new romance which goes from 0 to 60 (I didn't buy it) is the focus of the second part.

The world building was the best part of the story. A mysterious, magical city, dark and wonderous. A magical circus with a contest for best magician. So exciting!

Yet, where was the magic? There was hardly any!

I had to force myself to pick up the book for the first 60% of the book. Even though the ending was good, it doesn't make up for the other challenges, for me personally.

A magician’s contest in a secret town beyond the cursed woods. What isn’t there to love about that?! The magic system in this book was really well done, and I love the fiery spirit of our main character Kallia. I did find the story to be very slow pacing, but overall it was an enjoyable read. The plot of a magic contest to bring a town back to life, with a twist. This book had a lot of Caraval Vibes, which is one of my all time favorites.

DNF REVIEW • I can't even remember what compelled me to click that tempting "Read Now" button when I spotted it one day on NetGalley, but I think it was the hope that this would fill the Night Circus shaped hole in my heart. I should have known those shoes were too big to fill! I made it about 20% before realizing this just wasn't for me. There was something about the writing that made the story hard for me to follow, and none of the characters were compelling enough at that point to entice me to stick around. There wasn't a lot happening in the story, despite a promising opening, so the pace felt incredibly slow. When I realized I was avoiding picking it back up, I knew it was time to permanently put it down.

Truth be told, it took me a whole month to go through this book. Like a good bottle of wine, I didn't want to rush through this book. Kallia, the protagonist, was a fantastic creation. Without irony, she is the only woman I would ever refer to as my boss. The only downside to Aaros was that there wasn't enough of him to go around.

Daron was just the best man. I like to assume that maybe there are nice men in the world because of fictional characters like this. In conclusion, I thought this book was great and would strongly suggest it to anybody considering it for purchase.

2.5 stars rounded up

this just didn't work for me unfortunately. the main heroine started making me angry when there was little to no character growth. plus the magic system confused me so it just made everything feel off. Not sure if I will pick up the second book but it's looking more and more like a no.

All I can say is I can’t wait for the next book!!! The world building is amazing in this. I can’t believe she is a debut author. If you liked Caraval or the Night Circus then this is a must read. It was my favorite out of the three!!! Kallia is an amazing. I loved the fantasy aspect of this book the most!!!

What a read! Amazing story and writing. Has you guessing till the end. Just wonderful pacing and premise. Loved it.

I enjoyed this one! It was unique among its YA fantasy contemporaries, while still being familiar to fans of the genre. It did get a bit draggy in the middle and I think the book could have been cut down a little bit (probably by about 50 pages or so), but I was intrigued by the overall plot. I thought it would closely follow the plot of The Phantom of the Opera, but maybe that will become more clear in the sequel.

I am curious to read the follow up mostly because the first book ended on a cliffhanger. I'm not sure that I would if it hadn't just because this book felt too long, but I do want to know what happens to Kallia and Jack!

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

This was the second time I have tried to read Where Dreams Descend. The first time I only got to about chapter two, and then I just couldn't continue. This time around, I actually found the beginning really engaging and didn't start having issues until slightly further into this book. I am not even sure I can pinpoint what about this book made it such a weird read for me, only that if I hadn't been committed to finally finishing this book, I would probably have put this book down at various points. So thank you, audiobooks for making this easier to finish.

I will start out by saying that Angeles writes description beautifully. She can absolutely pull you into a setting with really lovely and lush descriptions of wherever the characters are at the time. It is truly the strongest element of her storytelling. She can absolutely captivate in this area.

Unfortunately for me, almost everything else in her book I have a much more mixed feeling on.

Starting with the way Angeles introduces new mysteries into her plot. I was really interested in where the story was going at the beginning, but as you continue reading, Angeles keeps introducing more and more questions for the reader. This would be fine, great even, if this was in a world I felt grounded in or if I really felt like I understood the character. But neither was true for me. I was so unclear on so many aspects of this book that I wasn't sure what was purposeful mystery and what was the author just not working for me. I felt like I had so many questions about this world, more so than what the author intended, I assume. I just needed more information about this world and these characters, but specifically the main character, Kallia, in order to be properly immersed in this world.

Kallia was a weird character for me. She is a really strong, competent character, almost to the point where she becomes flat. She is really magically powerful; we find out throughout the book that generally, women aren't allowed to perform the kind of magic that Kallia performs and that historically, women were known to be the most powerful at this magic. We hear about another female magician who might have had a similar power level to Kallia, but none of the women we actually meet on the page have anywhere near her magic level. The female empowerment angel of this book didn't work super well for me for this reason. Every woman we meet is specifically noted to be much less powerful; it feels almost condescending to have to be told over and over how incredibly powerful Kallia is at the expense of the other women we meet. I don't mind Kallia being the most powerful person; I just find the way the book discusses it to be confusing.

Speaking of Kallia's power, the magic in this book has rules, but I do not understand them. We are told that there is physical consequence to magic, we Kallia being tired after she uses magic, and we hear other magicians say the same thing but aside from that very vague limitation, I have zero conception of what the magic can do and who can do it and what the cost is. I don't like a soft magic system, but I do still want to understand what different people are capable of when I am reading a story with magic in it. I just felt like I was lacking context around the magic system.

I also just felt like I didn't have nearly enough information about the whole world. The more worldbuilding elements that were added, the more I was confused about how this world actually works. I needed more practical world information, and I did not have that. I am not sure exactly what technology the people in this world have; I am not sure how their political or economic systems work; I am just generally not sure how this world functions.

This book has one of my very favorite tropes ever, a magic competition. I do not think this was utilized to the extent I wanted it to be. I did not feel tension over the competition, Kallia is repeatedly told to be much more powerful than all the other competitors and we almost never really get to see her competition working. We are told that they don't take the competition nearly as seriously as she does, which I think is meant to make us like her more, but what it actually does is make the competition seem unimportant. If Kallia is the only person who values the competition, then how much value does winning it hold? Also, I do sort of agree that she cheated in the first round, and I didn't think it was a very compelling show. That could be just because I hate it when people dance in the isles when I go to the theater; I can literally only think of one time I have felt like a show used the area around the audience in a way I felt was compelling.

Immediately upon coming into town, Kallia meets Aaros, a thief who she befriends and hires to be her assistant. I do really like their relationship, and I like him as a character. But I do not think we got anywhere near enough reason as to why he would so quickly become so incredibly loyal to her. I just felt like this relationship deserved so much more page time than it got.

This book also has a romance. It, along with the pacing of the general plot, suffered greatly from the author constantly keeping characters separate from each other. The way people were so distant from each other did not lead to developing engaging character relationships. I wanted people on the page together so much more often than they were. It felt like the author was trying to elongate the book by making sure no one could share information until the last fifty pages; I found this very frustrating to read.

The couple in this book are not alone together all that often, and much of the time they are together, it is off-page or in silence. Which is not the most excellent way to make people care about a romantic relationship. I did like the man generally, though I have no idea how old he was meant to be; I assumed Kallia was 16-18 because this is YA, but the love interest seems significantly older in a way that made me think this should have been an adult novel and Kallia should have been a touch older. I think that would have made more narrative sense. There is also a love triangle brewing, and I kind of hate it. This is Phantom of the Opera inspired; the other love interest seems like he is meant to be the phantom equivalent, and I am not that compelled by the phantom as a romantic hero, and I am equally not that compelled by Jack.

This book felt like it was a weird length. I do think this is because of the aforementioned pacing issues I had. There was so much that I wanted more information about this world and these characters, but I also felt like Angeles really elongated what she did take the time to tell the reader. I would have loved for the pace to have moved a bit quicker and to have filled in that extra space with the world and character information I craved. I feel like I am caught between wanting this book to be longer and wanting it to be shorter. I don't know what would have been better, but I do know I didn't like it the way it was in the final draft.

This does seem like I hated this book, but I really don't think I did. I felt like this book had so much potential to be so interesting and fresh, and I was just underwhelmed and lightly frustrated while reading. I am still not sure what I am going to rate this book. I also am really unsure if I am going to read the next book. I was kind of disappointed when I realized about 3/4 of the way through this book that this must be a series; I will have to see if I am still thinking about this book in a few days and decide then.

I have elected not to read and review this book due to time constraints. Thank you for the opportunity.

Perfect for fans of The Night Circus, Caraval, and The Crown's Game. I cannot rave about this book enough! I need more of Jack for sure, and look forward to diving into the second book for more of Kallia's fire and Daron's sweetness. There are so many uncovered truths! I loved it!

Where dreams descend was boring until the last three chapters of the story. I force myself to finish the book and that's a lot for me.
I'm happy that everyone enjoy this book maybe it was not my cup of tea.
3 stars.
I received this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.